Students, ex-staff and artists express dismay.
By Edd McCracken, Arts Correspondent

Glasgow School of Art is considering scrapping its famous ceramics degree course, the last of its kind in Scotland. The proposal has been met with anger and disbelief from pupils, staff and former heads of the ceramics department.

On February 7, staff and students within the department were informed of the recommendation to cease recruiting full-time and part-time, undergraduates to the BA Ceramic Design programmes.

The school cited declining interest in the subject as the main reason for the proposal.

GSA insisted it is the BA Ceramic design programme that is under threat, not the whole ceramic department, but students have pointed out the degree makes up the bulk of the department.

"I can't understand that," said Ester Svensson, the student representative for the ceramics department.

"The ceramics department consists of undergraduates from the ceramic design degree - part-time and full-time. It's the only degree within the department.

"There's work being done with the council, and some research, but I don't see how they can carry on the department without the students."

Svensson said the mood was one of "shock" and that staff were not consulted ahead of the proposal. She also accused the school of not doing enough to market the course and of prospective students not being shown the department on open days.

One former head of ceramics at GSA accused the school of having ulterior motives.

"I'm a fairly cynical character, but why this particular department?" said Alex Leckie, head of ceramics from 1966 to 1986.

"And the one reason that jumps to mind is it's the one department that occupies a building on the corner of Buccleuch Street and Rose Street. Very valuable property.

"I know the school has plans to do stuff around the Mackintosh building. I see this as a sacrifice of a department to meet expenses elsewhere. And that's rather sad."

Since it was founded in 1948, GSA's ceramic department has been a main facet of the school. The Mackintosh building's entrance area is decorated with ceramic mosaics of artists such as Raphael, Michelangelo, Robert Adam and Charles Rennie himself.

If ceramics are removed from the school, as they have been in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee, it will be the death knell of the craft in Scotland, according to Leckie.

"No child in Scotland will be able to get a ceramics degree here, so it will have knock-on effects," he said. "Galleries will have fewer exhibitions of ceramics, there will be no ceramics to add to national collections and, generally speaking, the ordinarily public won't be educated to take any interest in ceramics. It is incredibly sad."

One of Scotland's most renowned artists and former head of painting at GSA, Alexander Moffat, said the threat to the ceramics degree is part of a bigger malaise within all art schools.

"Ceramics have always been a Cinderella subject," he said. "In any university if a subject, even an important subject, doesn't attract students, it doesn't make good business sense. This is the problem. We really should be approaching this from a completely different point of view. Should we have a ceramics department in Scotland? Obviously we should. We should be fighting for it instead of shutting it down to save money."

A statement from the school said: "Across our other design programmes, competition for places is very high. In contrast, a growing lack of competition for places within ceramic design represents a significant risk to GSA's academic reputation and makes it difficult to ensure that consistency of student attainment is maintained across the design programme."

The school said the proposal would be discussed in the appropriate academic committees and the GSA's academic council will make its final decision in March.